In Ohio, Huckabee counsels vote suppression, to laughter

By BEN SMITH

10/17/2011 11:19 AM EDT

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee drew laughs at a fundraiser in support of an Ohio labor initiative by telling guests that they should resort to deceit to keep their political foes away from the polls.

Issue 2 is a Wisconsin-style measure to roll back public employee unions, a hard-fought and deeply partisan question in the state, and Huckabee spoke at a Warren County breakfast for the group that backs it, Building a Better Ohio.

"Make a list. Call them and ask them, 'Are you going to vote for Issue 2 and are you going to vote for it?'" Huckabee advised, according to an audio recording provided by a foe of the initiative. "If they say no, well, you just make sure that they don't go vote. Let the air out of their tires on election day. Tell them the election has been moved to a different date. That's up to you how you creatively get the job done."

Huckabee didn't say he was joking, though the laughter suggests his audience knew he was; a similar riff in Virginia in 2009 drew criticism from Democrats.

And at a moment of intense suspicion between the parties on the mechanics of voting, Huckabee's words are unlikely to build Democrats' faith that Republican initiatives to tighten procedures are meant in good faith.

At the event, Huckabee invoked his difficulty in constructing a large new house in Florida as a case in point of the problems with public workers. An office that processed building permits, he said, hadn't reduced its staff even after building dried up in the housing crisis -- it just slowed down its work.

"We thought, 'Well this shouldn't take long – they don’t have anythign to do,'" he said, before waiting 89 of a possible 90 days for a permit.

"My contractor was going nuts and I said, 'Let me explain how government works,'" Huckabee recalled. "in the private sector you get things done as quickly as you can. in the government you make things as slow as you can because if you don’t you're out of business."